Interview: Marilu Knode

Interview: Marilu Knode

Laumeier Sculpture Park Executive Director and innovator of the arts Marilu Knode shares what inspires and excites her in the art community and in life.

What is your current mood or state of mind?Inspired.

What makes you happy?My boyfriend, my garden and smart conversations.

What is your idea of misery?Feeling trapped by an idea that is not your own.

What did you eat for breakfast today?Decaf coffee.

What’s one word that describes you?Energetic.

What trait do you value most in others?True to themselves and others.What’s your favorite occupation?Thinking about art.

Who would you most like to be?Queen Noor of Jordan.

What’s your favorite color?Orange.

What is your favorite food?Indian.What food do you like the least?Meat and potatoes.

If you could have dinner with anyone (dead or alive), who would that be?Freud, even if it’s just to punch him.

What vice do you most tolerate in others?Gluttony.

What talent do you wish you had?I wish I was more athletic.Who is your favorite artist?Nancy Spero because she did so much for generations of artists and curators.

Favorite Author?Currently it’s Eliot Pattison.

What excites you?That every day the landscape can change.

What do you consider a turn off?Unexamined thinkers or closed mindedness.

What do you love?When people are doing the right things for the right reasons.

What do you hate?Increasing small mindedness of public life.

What are you most looking forward to?Seeing how we solve the economic problems we face right now by using new social means.

What is one thing you wish would happen?That we would agree that the arts are really critical to living a civilized life.What’s something interesting that you just learned?That the north and south poles are considered deserts because of their lack of access to water.

What’s something you want to learn?More about how to fix my car.What is your personal motto?Yalla! (“Let’s go” in Arabic)

In another life, you’d be?A mediator.

What is your current obsession?Finding the perfect perennial.

What is your favorite word?Brilliant.What is your least favorite word?Parsimonious.

What’s on your “bucket list”?I want to go every place I’ve never been before.

Your hidden talent?Embroidering.

Personal hero?Deepak Chopra.

If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you say?“Just let go.”

‘Archetypes’ are off-the-cuff interviews with St. Louis’ most inspiring, well-known personalities based on the 19th century parisian parlor game known as the Proust Questionaire.